The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission has been rendering advice and hearing and acting on complaints about ethical behavior by public employees and elected officials since 2007. Certainly the amendment that created the IEC could have been better worded in some areas, but overall the commission has worked hard to fairly hear and act on ethics complaints, among other responsibilities.

There are 41 states with government ethics agencies. Colorado has the smallest staff — only one person until recently — and one of the smallest budgets. In fact, the IEC is smaller than almost all city ethics commissions.

To be fair, the IEC was created during one of the nation’s worst recessions, so the resources have not been available for several years.

But to be truly independent, the IEC should have an investigative staff and attorneys who would put together the case if warranted. This would minimize the use and misuse of the IEC for political purposes and allow investigators to interview witnesses and the complaint’s validity before the case was made public.

Our ethics commission is also the only one among all states that requires the complainant to present evidence in a proceeding. In my nearly six years as executive director, not a week went by without a call from someone with concerns about a public employee or elected official. Almost all the callers dropped the inquiry because they were unwilling to become the prosecutor or for fear of reprisal in the community.

Eleven people have served on the commission since it was created, a bipartisan mix set in the constitutional language. They dedicate an enormous amount of time for a volunteer job, including monthly, all-day meetings in person and often phone meetings in between. They read hundreds of pages of documents to prepare for meetings.

Recently, some commissioners’ fairness has been questioned by people who disagreed with decisions, and the IEC has been referred to as “dysfunctional,” a “kangaroo court” and a “joke.”

Commissioners have painstakingly taken measures to be fair, balanced and transparent, extraordinarily aware that they are the public face for fostering ethical behavior in public servants. Their hands sometimes have been tied by the language of the amendment and by a lack of resources. It would serve the people of Colorado better to try to improve the processes rather than to call names.

Jane Feldman stepped down as executive director of the Independent Ethics Commission last month.